Seann William Scott on Role Models

Seann William Scott knows he is best known as Stifler. He's tried taking some parts that are different than Stifler, with some success and some failure, but he knows he owes his career to Stifler. After expressing his range, he made Role Models as a sort of thank you to his Stifler fan base.

Seann William Scott One of the Role Models

"After doing some smaller movies, I didn’t think that Woodcock and Dukes really played to my strengths with the audience that gave me a career," said Scott. "In a strange way, and I would never compare myself to Vince Vaughn, because I think he’s a genius, but it’s like, when he did Wedding Crashers, it was like, 'Wow. It’s so great to see him in that Swingers mode.' I was just like, 'I need to find a movie that’s going to make some money, that’s going to be funny, and put a little bit of a different spin on a character that’s allowed me to have a career.' That’s actually why I went after it."

"He’s really talented," Scott asid. "It was interesting to see him. It was interesting, because he was going through basically the same thing I went through because this was his next movie after Superbad. I remember after American Pie came out, my next movie I think was Road Trip. That whole thing where you go out and girls are talking to you, and you’re just like, 'Whoa, this is cool.' You kind of know it’s only because you’re in a movie. He would come up to me. He was like, 'Was it kind of weird when people called you Stifler when the movie came out?' I’m like, 'Yeah, it’s weird, but it’s a compliment. It means that you did a good job.' I mean, how many movies do you see that you don’t remember the character’s names? I’m like, 'You gotta embrace that.' And I think he’s smart enough to know that he wants to keep trying different things but you still kind of try as much as you can to find some movies that make some money, which will create some freedom for you. If that means that you have to do a variation of what seemed to have worked, then you kind of have to do it. It’s a business, at the end of the day. He did say, 'Yeah, I think it’s pretty cool because I was in Santa Barbara, and I hooked up with these two girls.' I think he said at the same time. Maybe it was the same night. And he’s like, 'And I know they only wanted to hook up with me because I was McLovin.’"

There can be only one Stifler though, and even though Role Models gives Scott another chance to smirk, it has more of a character arc. "He’s not like a stand-out in the film, whereas American Pie, he just kind of popped a little bit, because he was just so different than the other guys. Whereas this movie, everybody’s so good. It really is a variation of the American Pie guy but it’s not as one-dimensional. I mean, if people respond to the movie like that, then it’d be pretty great that they were like, 'Oh, I kind of know this guy and I know that it’s never too late to grow up.' Truthfully, all I kept thinking about was trying to create little moments that people would quote and just try to make people laugh. I’m not a Method actor by any means."

He did discover the music of KISS through the film, as his character bonds with his protégé over the thinly veiled metaphors in KISS music. "At first I was like, 'Wouldn’t it be cooler if it was Rolling Stones?' That was David [Wain]’s idea. It was such a great idea. At first I was like, it’s cool but does this fit this guy? And then I was like, 'He was so right.' Not to mention just that moment at the end when we show up as KISS, but just the one way, the one time that I relate to the kid with 'Love Gun,' it’s so inappropriate and strange, but it’s so effective."